Page 45 of The Reluctant Heir

“Princess Madeline.” Kaine turns fully to face me as his eyes take in my outfit. “Wow.”

Julien snorts. “If you’re taking her out on a date, you shouldn’t call her by her title. Just call her Maddie.”

I stroll closer to my brother and my… advisor…date? My pretend date? My practice date? I’m not even sure what this is. All I know is, that it feels like an extremely bad idea to voluntarily spend more time with Kaine.

“You look beautiful,” Kaine says, ignoring my brother.

“Thank you.” I lower my head, letting my hair curtain my face.

“Head up,” Julien says as he nudges my chin upward. “Be bold, Maddie. Yourdateis right. You are beautiful. And I’m not just saying that because we look alike.”

I grin at my brother, then turn to Kaine. “Are you ready?”

Kaine’s Adam’s apple bobs. “I’m ready.”

I glance at Julien. “I’ll see you in a little bit.”

Julien rolls his eyes. “You think I’ll be waiting for you to get home to see how your fake date was? No way. We’ve already established that I’m gorgeous. I’ve got my own date and I guarantee I’ll be out later than you. So we will talk tomorrow night after we wake up.”

I level him with a look as Kaine leads me past him.

With Kaine’s hand on my lower back, the butterflies intensify and I can’t help but think that this is a horrible idea.

13

INTERROGATION

Kaine takes me to a nice restaurant where he proceeds to act like we’re at work. He talks about politics, laws, and all the mundane stuff I have to listen to throughout the week.

“This isn’t helping,” I say, cutting off his speech about how unfair the law about changing humans is.

“What isn’t working?” Kaine lifts his glass of water to his lips, taking a sip.

“This isn’t adate, it’s a lecture.”

He purses his lips. “Well, it’s not adate,date. It’s a practice date.”

“Yes, but we’re doing things I’m comfortable with. You always give me lectures about boring vampire stuff.” I motion between us. “You’re supposed to treat this like a real date, not like we’re working. There are lots of things I could be doing this Saturday night—like reading a book while I take a bubble bath.”

Kaine raises an eyebrow. “You read while you take a bath?”

“Doesn’t everyone?”

He shakes his head. “I would never want to ruin a book. What if it gets wet?”

I wave a hand. “Then I’ll buy another copy.”

He leans forward. “What kind of books do you read?”

I tap my finger on the side of my glass. “Romance, usually.”

“Considering how much you seem to hate dating, I didn’t peg you for a romantic.” Kaine’s intense blue eyes study me.

I shrug. “I am a romantic. It’s not like I want to be single for the rest of my life. I want love. I want a husband and kids. And I’ve always envied shifters. They have soulmates—fate tells them who they should be with. That makes things so much easier. I wish it were the same for vampires.”

“And now you’re stuck with a political marriage—one you don’t want because you’re trying to findthe one.” Kaine leans back in his chair, a thoughtful expression on his face.

I don’t like that expression because I don’t want Kaine to read me like this.

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